Nori Aoki out with knee soreness

Manager Ron Roenicke told us Wednesday morning that rightfielder Norichika Aoki is out of the lineup today with right knee soreness that is not considered serious despite a touch of patella tendinitis.

With Aoki out and Carlos Gomez still sidelined by a sprained right knee, Roenicke had to put first baseman/outfielder Sean Halton in right field. There are no extra outfielders so Roenicke said his reserves would be utility infielders Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeff Bianchi.

Gomez is making progress with his knee and hopes to be in the lineup Friday night when the Brewers open a three-game series in Cincinnati. The Brewers are off Thursday. »Read Full Blog Post

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I honestly have never been so unimpressed with a Brewer player as I am with Francisco. How he is still on the team blows me away, much less continually seeing playing time. Despite some power, he is NOT the answer at first base and never will be. Yes our options are limited, but Betancourt (I can't believe I am actually writing that) or Bianchi are much better options. Keep Francisco on the bench and pinch hit him if a home run is needed late in the game. No major league player should be that awful of a fielding first baseman. As much as people got on Prince, he was a much better fielder and knew how to bat besides just trying for home runs. I always try to give the manager the benefit of the doubt in so many situations because we don't know everything that is going on, but continually playing Francisco has ended my desire to see any more games this year. I know, I know, who cares if I go or not, but these kinds of decisions are driving many fans away.

Touché Homer Jay. Not having played first base before is not an excuse to play Bianchi over Francisco. I honestly believe that the majority of major league players could step in on any given day and play better first base than Juan, even if they have never played it before. That is, assuming they can catch pop up's on a regular basis. Not sure why I am focusing on Francisco so much in this dismal season, but it just bothers me so much to see him playing.

I mostly only want to see Francisco play to set the record, but pining for Bianchi or Yuni to play 1B instead of him right now is ridiculous. Yuni's an awful 1B and Bianchi's never played it in his professional, major or minor-league life. Bianchi's OPS is .571, Yuni is .587. Fat Juan is .819.